Category Archives: Environment

Pope Francis

As expected Pope Francis is about to release his encyclical concerning the environment and climate change. The Guardian article below explains much of what is likely to be included in the Bull. The Pope concurs with many of our ideas here at The BA. One important aspect is the cultural & aesthetic appreciation of Nature in its own right. Remember too that the Vatican has a voice at the UN and is a country in its own right; as well as speaking for over a billion Catholics worldwide.

Also as expected the Yankee Republicans said “the pope should stick to his job!”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/13/pope-francis-intervention-transforms-climate-change-debate

Another important e-petition asking for help

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They only need a few thousand more signatures for this to go to Obama. Any help welcome, thanks. If you are unfamiliar with the impacts of such things take a look at Vieques in Puerto Rico. Michael

https://www.change.org/p/united-states-department-of-defense-do-not-use-the-inhabited-us-islands-of-tinian-pagan-as-a-high-impact-bombing-range

At last! A hint of truth about hot air!

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This short article touches on why we cannot achieve much in our world. The two most vocal powers are determined to do as little as possible. But why? Simple! It interferes with their abillity to make a profit. At the heart of the matter it has only ever been about money: but it is clear that capitalism ~ and the deliberate destruction of our planet to fuel that paradigm ~ has failed. The climate meeting in Paris this December is likely to achieve very little indeed 🙁

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/uk-and-us-main-barriers-to-addressing-climate-change-survey-finds-10303279.html

https://apotekese.com

California: death of the lawn?

Stop Weakening Europe’s Birds and Habitats regulation!

Stop weakening Natura 2000 directives

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Natura 2000 Birds and Habitats directives are scientifically prepared, decades long, mature framework for protecting endangered species and their most important breeding, feeding and sheltering habitats across all EU countries. This system has to be strengthened not weakened.

The latest study from the European Environment Agency highlighted that “When implemented well, conservation measures work and improve the status of habitats and species on the ground. Such improvements remain limited and patchy, and unfortunately Europe’s biodiversity is still being eroded overall and the pressures continue.”

As part of the EU Commission's Regulatory Fitness (REFIT) program, the EU Conservation Commission launched a public survey to collect data to support their 12 weeks public consultation project with the objective of "investigating" the Birds and Habitats directives and make them "fit for the purpose".

The survey is purely designed, the survey questions and the predefined answer sets are ambiguous, the survey suffers from many weaknesses and it is unusable for collecting coherent, valid, scientifically meaningful data. Instead it might be used for serving deregulation purposes which than would be perfectly suitable to serve the interest of global corporations against the barriers posed by the directives of nature conservation in Europe.

We ask the EU Conservation Commission office, led by Mr. Karmenu Vella to stop the current process, revoke and substantially rework the survey, and launch it again only if and when it can truly be used for serving the objectives of conservation.

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The post about the publicly available information about EU Commission’s effort to make the current Natura 2000 Birds and Habitats Directives ‘more fit’ can be found here.

China’s wetlands

Bougainville

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: A jungle village on Bougainville, 2005 - Lloyd Jones, AAP

Another disturbing happening. Not good news for those us familiar with these processes, especially Rio Tinto and Abbott. Business first. Does anyone have direct knowledge of the place?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/20/australias-interest-in-bougainvilles-independence-is-far-from-locals-wishes

China: rapid progress with air pollution

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: China's last Beijing coal power plant - David Gray, Reuters

Two interesting articles here. China has always been capable of long-term planning, and more recently with creating rapid change (e.g. building a new city a month). So if these stories are correct, then well done to China. That also begs another question: why is Tony Abbott’s government in Australia stiil so keen on massive new coal mines?

http://rt.com/news/259425-china-carbon-emissions-cuts/

http://rt.com/business/243561-china-coal-power-plants/

Europe’s birds

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: Ortolan bunting - Roger Tidman, Corbis

Early warning here. I imagine the report itself, once released, will be illuminating. There are several other links off the Guardian article below.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/14/a-third-of-europes-birds-under-threat-says-most-comprehensive-study-yet

El Nino has, apparently, arrived.

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: El Nino heat map - AFP / Getty images

This cyclical weather phenomenon has apparently finally arrived. NOAA said it started in March 2015, although few of the physical signs appeared. The link below shows Australia, Japan and NOAA all agreeing … we’ll soon find out. What the article does not say is that the 1997-98 ENSO saw roughly half of the world’s corals die. In the face of global warming the corals and seagrass beds absorb a huge amount of CO2 during their photsynthesis. We’re talking similar levels of carbon-fixing to tropical rain forests; so if we get more major coral bleaching events then we are likely to be in a mess.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/what-is-el-nino-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-weather-phenomenon-10247049.html

The Biodiversity Alliance

Reconnecting humanity with nature